1234100 - Make Adobe GMP available to Windows XP users in Firefox 45 and later

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Release Engineering :: Release Requests, defect)

Description

[Chris Pearce [:cpearce (Not reading bugmail)]]

We've determined that the Adobe GMP can be used to decode H.264/AAC for non-EME HTML5 <video>. So we need to push it out to Firefox versions where this works (Firefox 45/Aurora and Firefox 46/Nightly), so that WinXP users can have MP4 video playback.

So please can we change the GMP update.xml files to also push out the 32bit Adobe GMP v15 to Windows XP users, and the GMP v16 to XP x64 users.

We should only push the Adobe GMP out to Firefox 45/Aurora and later, as the code to use it isn't in earlier Firefox versions.

To test that the GMP is downloading, you'll need to set the pref media.gmp-eme-adobe.forcevisible=true, and restart Firefox. Or you'll need to include the patch for Bug 1234099 in your build.

Comment 1

[Liz Henry (:lizzard Please n-i to RyanVM, jcristau, or pascal)]

Currently (for 43 release) we don't promise support for WinXP 64-bit.  Is this going to change for newer versions like 45 and 46? Javaun, is this your call?

Comment 2

[Liz Henry (:lizzard Please n-i to RyanVM, jcristau, or pascal)]

Tracking since this affects 45 and 46. 

Chris, seems like this should also be on Nightly for testing before we put it on 45 aurora. Do you think it should land on aurora at the same time?

Comment 3

[Chris Pearce [:cpearce (Not reading bugmail)]]

We currently have enabled this feature on Windows other than XP in 45. I don't mind doing a two stage rollout, Nightly then a few weeks later Aurora, but it would be more work for releng to make the rollout two stage on the update server side.

Note that we won't download the GMP unless Firefox is also updated (bug 1234099), so we can change the update server to list the GMP for download in 45 and later, and delay uplifting bug 1234099 until Firefox has a few weeks with bug 1234099 applied in Nightly. After the new year for example. This would reduce the amount of work releng has to do on the update server.

So for clarity, I propose:
* Change the GMP update server to make the Adobe GMP available for download in Firefox 45 and later on WinXP.
* Land bug 1234099 in Nightly, so Firefox will download the Adobe GMP on WinXP if its available.
* After the new year, uplift bug 1234099 to Aurora so that Firefox 45 users can benefit from this sooner.

Comment 4

[Liz Henry (:lizzard Please n-i to RyanVM, jcristau, or pascal)]

Sylvestre do you have an opinion here about how to handle the rollout?

Comment 5

[Justin Wood (:Callek)]

(In reply to Liz Henry (:lizzard) (needinfo? me) from comment #4)
> Sylvestre do you have an opinion here about how to handle the rollout?

Pending decision on rollout I just pushed this to XP for the "nightlytest" release channel. Targetting 45+ and XP only.

That enables humans to test. I also advise not planning a rollout until after christmas at this point.

Comment 6

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

OK, sounds good.

Comment 7

[Justin Wood (:Callek)]

Liz,

When ready to push, I'm expecting explicit action(s) and GO's since the above is a bit too ambiguous for me to feel comfortable deciphering on my own intuition. I'm happy to do whatever whenever you're ready for it.

Comment 8

[Liz Henry (:lizzard Please n-i to RyanVM, jcristau, or pascal)]

Who is doing testing and do they know about it?    It sounds like we  need testing on nightly, then an uplift request to aurora.

Comment 9

[Chris Pearce [:cpearce (Not reading bugmail)]]

(In reply to Liz Henry (:lizzard) (needinfo? me) from comment #8)
> Who is doing testing and do they know about it?

Uh, me? I talk to myself regularly.

I've tested this locally in a VM, and I've also had a number of people inside the Platform team test this on WinXP on physical XP-era hardware, and it performs on par with Flash.

The only issue I'm aware of is Bug 1236756, and that only happens in a small percentage of audio streams; and more importantly, *not* on YouTube. I think the benefits of have MP4 support on XP make it worth while pushing this out even with this issue. This issue requires Adobe fixing their GMP, and they can ship a release independent of our release trains.

It would be good to get some QA on this once it's been pushed.

> It sounds like we  need
> testing on nightly, then an uplift request to aurora.

Sounds reasonable.

Comment 10

[Chris Pearce [:cpearce (Not reading bugmail)]]

(In reply to Justin Wood (:Callek) from comment #7)
> Liz,
> 
> When ready to push, I'm expecting explicit action(s) and GO's since the
> above is a bit too ambiguous for me to feel comfortable deciphering on my
> own intuition. I'm happy to do whatever whenever you're ready for it.

I have tested the "nightlytest" channel, and it works fine. Can we push the update server update for Nightly now please?

Comment 11

[Justin Wood (:Callek)]

(In reply to Chris Pearce (:cpearce) from comment #10)
> (In reply to Justin Wood (:Callek) from comment #7)
> > Liz,
> > 
> > When ready to push, I'm expecting explicit action(s) and GO's since the
> > above is a bit too ambiguous for me to feel comfortable deciphering on my
> > own intuition. I'm happy to do whatever whenever you're ready for it.
> 
> I have tested the "nightlytest" channel, and it works fine. Can we push the
> update server update for Nightly now please?

Liz, can you (or another relman) give me a go, if this is good? (and/or give the in-bug delegation to chris for said go's).

Comment 12

[Liz Henry (:lizzard Please n-i to RyanVM, jcristau, or pascal)]

OK, yes please go for it with the nightly push.  Chris, do you want to handle this like Maire did with OpenH264? Let the release-drivers list know what's going on, and communicate about crashes or any problems on r-d or at the channel meeting.

Comment 13

[Chris Pearce [:cpearce (Not reading bugmail)]]

(In reply to Liz Henry (:lizzard) (needinfo? me) from comment #12)
> Chris, do you want to
> handle this like Maire did with OpenH264? Let the release-drivers list know
> what's going on, and communicate about crashes or any problems on r-d or at
> the channel meeting.

Yes, that sounds great.

Comment 14

[Chris Pearce [:cpearce (Not reading bugmail)]]

(In reply to Chris Pearce (:cpearce) from comment #9)
> The only issue I'm aware of is Bug 1236756, and that only happens in a small
> percentage of audio streams; and more importantly, *not* on YouTube. 

Turns out, this bug also happens on the majority of videos in my facebook news stream when using the Adobe GMP for decoding, so we should halt pushing out the Adobe GMP to WinXP users until Adobe have fixed this bug.

Comment 15

[Justin Wood (:Callek)]

For future reference, when cpearce says "go" for gmp changes (deploying to a new os, etc) we can do so.

He will be responsible for coordination with r-d and company. Per c#12 and c#13 in this bug

Comment 16

[Liz Henry (:lizzard Please n-i to RyanVM, jcristau, or pascal)]

OK. So we are not rolling this out and don't need to track it.  I'll mark it as unaffected for 45 and 46.

Please reopen and set the status flags or otherwise let relman know if that changes.

Comment 17

[Chris Pearce [:cpearce (Not reading bugmail)]]

We're targeting Firefox 46 with Adobe's new GMP. Clearing need-info. Will re-file relevant bug.